McCaw Cup

The McCaw Cup (formerly the WIAU ice hockey trophy and the Dr. Judy McCaw Trophy) is a trophy awarded annually to the provincial champion in collegiate women's ice hockey of the Ontario University Athletics conference of U Sports. Originally named the WIAU ice hockey trophy, it was rededicated by the University of Guelph in 1972 to Dr. Judy McCaw, an Anglo-Québécois veterinarian and professor at the university. The University of Guelph also colloquially refers to the cup as Judy.

The McCaw Cup differs from its counterpart in men's collegiate hockey, the Queen's Cup, as it features teams only from Ontario universities. Unlike the women's conferences which are separated into the OUA in Ontario and the RSEQ in Québec, all three men's collegiate ice hockey teams in Québec compete in the OUA for the Queen's Cup.

History
From 1922-1971, the trophy was known as the Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Union (WIAU) Ice Hockey Trophy. Until 1998 it was the highest award in women's collegiate ice hockey, as there was no national governing body over women's inter-university hockey. Following the 1971 season, the WIAU merged with the Ontario-Québec University Athletic Association to form the Ontario Women's Interuniversity Athletic Association (OWIAA) and the cup was renamed to the Judy McCaw Trophy, which was then shortened to the McCaw Cup following the merger of the men's and women's leagues to the OUA in 1998.

Following the establishment of a national championship in 1998, the recipient of the cup would go on to represent the conference at the national tournament. Currently, both the champion and the runner-up are granted berths at the U Sports national championship, with the recipient of the cup given the higher seed at the tournament.

McCaw Cup Championship
In the OUA's current format, the 4 best teams in each division play in best of 5 quarter-final and semi-final matchups to determine who will play in the single elimination final known as the McCaw Cup Championship. Historically, a 4 team playoff has been used to determine the champion.

WIAU (1922 - 1971)
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OWIAA (1972 - 1997)
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OUA (1998 - present)
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Championships by Team
The Toronto Varsity Blues have won the most championships with 40, who were also the inaugural recipients of the cup in 1922. The Queen's Gaels were the second team to win the cup four years later in 1926, and it was not until the Guelph Gryphons won the cup 39 years later in 1967 that a team other than the Blues or the Gaels had won.

The cup was not awarded in 1936-1948, as well as from 1951-1960 after several teams had withdrawn from the conference. The cup has been continually awarded since 1961, with the exception of the 2021 season, which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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